Well-Known Ohio Giant Falls
By Mark Melotik
Sometimes the planets align and a big buck simply gets dropped in your lap. Talk to Ohio’s Eric Phillips, and it’s likely you’ll come away believing that’s exactly what happened last Dec. 17 — the second day of the state’s gun season. That’s when he bagged a well-known Buckeye State brute not far from his front door stoop.
Another take might be that the 57-year-old’s 2023 success might have been just reward for passing several iffy shots at the very same bruiser buck earlier during bow season.
“I had been drinking coffee, I got a late start that second morning, and I just walked out on my driveway and he was standing there,” Eric said of the fateful December day on his farm-country spread. Now on autopilot, Eric leveled his rifle chambered in 350 Legend and fired; the buck that was standing maybe 100 yards from his driveway dropped almost instantly. Until he walked up to it, the excited hunter had not even realized the deer he had just shot was the same one he had been chasing all fall.
“All I saw was horns,” Eric recalled. “I didn’t even know it was that buck. It all happened in a few split seconds; I just wanted to be done, I figured it’s a buck I would be happy with.”
Eric suffers with a degenerative, hereditary spine condition that’s affected both his father and grandfather. It prevents him from sitting for more than one or two hours. He figures he has maybe one or two more seasons of hunting before he will have to call it quits.
That morning Eric had been on the way to his favorite stand located in his unassuming 16-acre woods, which is surrounded by large stretches of cut farm fields. The isolated wooded stretch is where, earlier that fall, Eric had captured almost daily trail camera photos of the big deer beginning in September. And it’s where he passed the big deer with his bow on several occasions as it skirted his stand just 35 yards away. But Eric knew those encounters weren’t quality bow shots.
“It’s pretty thick in there, and you can’t really shoot more than about 30 yards,” he said. “I saw him come through a few times, he was at 35, 40 yards, but they weren’t good shots.”
Eric was one of several locals who had known of the buck.
“All the area farmers had seen him. I know of at least six who knew of him,” Eric said. “One was close to a mile away, so he traveled quite a good distance. After the fact I learned that one had shot and hit him in the elbow during archery season — he walked with a limp — and a neighbor’s daughter had also seen him during archery season but couldn’t get a shot.”
After learning of Eric’s success, neighbors urged him to get the buck mounted.
“I wasn’t going to, but people around here said I had to get it mounted, so I did. It looks good. I have it in the living room with my other deer.”
Eric guesses he’s taken about 25 bucks over the years, including a handful of “good ones,” with his previous best a 150-incher. But the deer he’s currently most proud of is a 100-inch 10-pointer he helped his 17-year-old grandson Coltin bag during the 2023 youth gun season.
It’s the reason Eric was using a 350 Legend rifle during his own hunt. He had purchased the gun for Coltin’s use and wanted to make the season even more memorable by anchoring his own deer with the same gun. Mission accomplished, and a prouder grandpa you could not find.
“He did everything exactly the way I taught him,” he said. “The buck came out, and he was so patient, at first telling me, ‘It’s not a good shot, I gotta wait.’ Coltin was as patient as a saint, and it was a nice, safe shot. He took out the heart. I have more great memories of that buck than mine.”
Regardless, Eric’s Columbiana County buck will now forever be honored in the BTR records. The tale of the tape is impressive, with an official score of 197 4/8. Main beams measure 21 7/8 (right) and 22 4/8 inches, with the rack featuring a 16 4/8 inside spread, as well as 26 7/8 inches of irregular right-side points, and 16 7/8 inches of irregular left-side points.